The deal allows up to 20 Chinese vessels access to fish in the Cook Islands exclusive economic zone for the next three years as part of the Ministry of Mineral Resources exploratory fishing program.
Cook Islands will earn around $600,000 in fees in the first year, with that figure to be re-negotiated in each of the two subsequent years.
The secretary of marine resources, Ben Ponia, said it’s quite a significant deal for the Cook Islands because not much is known about bigeye and swordfish within their EEZ.
“We have a fairly healthy, well-developed fishery around albacore stocks. So this is really a way forward in diversifying our fishery. The scale of it is also, I suppose, significant for a small administration like ours.”
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